What’s the actual risk of telling a little white lie on your résumé?

• The market has become more competitive. Applicants that have been unemployed for an extended period may think they don’t have a chance.
• The ATS looks for specific words from each job seeker, and if applicants don’t have those words in their job history, they make them up to try and beat the bot at its own game.
• Many candidates feel the job search process has become so impersonal that they lack any connection with the employer.
• When career consultants and résumé writers are hired to create a killer résumé, the authentic voice of the applicant and incentive to tell the truth disappears.

According to the ResumeLab study, only 21% of people who lied on a résumé actually lose out on a job. But if a candidate is caught, the ATS identifies that person as a "do not hire".

How cheating can be discovered:

• Recruiters can read the “hidden” white fonts on a résumé by selecting all and changing the font to black.
• Hiring managers can search the candidate’s social media sites and find discrepancies.
• Cheating can be discovered during interviews.
• Companies hire independent firms to do background checks on new hires.